This IT pilot fish works at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security -- which is once again serving as a political football.

"Many of us were furloughed for more than two weeks in October 2013 during the federal shutdown," fish says. "Since our funding ends at midnight this Friday, we were scheduled to meet with our respective managers to receive official furlough notices.

"That afternoon, several dozen employees assembled in the conference room to view a joint press conference led by current and former DHS Secretaries. However, the department website would only display 'Page Not Found' and 'Ensure that URL 'www.youtube.com' is spelled correctly,' no matter how many different browsers, settings or tweaks the local video technicians tried. DHS did not have enough bandwidth for the traffic demand.

"As our deputy director stood apologizing at the front of the room, the jumbo screen behind him flashed a pop-up window: 'You have been selected to answer a survey about your experience with WWW.DHS.GOV.'

"The room erupted in laughter."

Just be happy Sharky can't do pop-up windows,or you'd be seeing one right now that says: "Send me your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll get a stylish Shark shirt if I use it." Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

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